Sound Bites

Banjo & Sullivan,The Ultimate Collection 1972-1978 (Hip-O Records). A marketing ruse created to hype horror show The Devil's Rejects, this amusing but raunchy novelty disc chronicles the make-believe musical ascent of two slaughtered hayseeds. Written and performed by Jesse Dayton (marinated in Jim Beam, trucker speed and nipple pie), these songs make that jug-eared kid in Deliverance seem like an Eagle Scout. -- La Briola

Rodney Crowell, The Outsider (Sugar Hill/DMZ/Columbia). Once Rodney Crowell quit trying to produce hits and decided to make music that moved him, he's been unstoppable. His latest is even better than The Houston Kid and Fate's Right Hand, its two worthy predecessors. The rockers are harder, the ballads more pungent, and the lyrics sharp, smart and ornery. Rebel country rises again. -- Roberts

Schoolyard Heroes, Fantastic Wounds (Control Group/Tcg). Execs fashion the Heroes of equal parts Yeah Yeah Yeahs and System of a Down, with a My Chemical Romance garnish for presentation. Sort of. They're more like the well booze to those groups' top-shelf: potent, but similar only to the shitfaced. Ryann Donnelly apes Karen O while the band plays catch-up. Schoolyard Heroes? Maybe remedial school. -- Adam Cayton-Holland

Wilderness, Wilderness (Jagjaguwar). Since Joy Division has been jocked to death, it was only a matter of time before someone cloned Factory Records' lesser known mope dealer, Crispy Ambulance. The lush post-punk of Wilderness's debut shimmers with an ether-soaked atmosphere bracingly devoid of pouting or theatrics. Interpol without the zits? As great as that sounds, Wilderness is even better. ­Heller

Id and Sleeper, Displacement (Mush). It takes more than checking TheCatcher in the Rye to push the parameters of hip-hop. Dog-paddling in the pool dug by cLOUDEAD and Sage Francis, Id and Sleeper's debut is a precocious exercise in edgy beats and heart-baring verse that manages to keep its head above water -- and that's about it. -- Heller

Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz, Crunk Juice: Chopped & Screwed, and Ying Yang Twins, United State of Atlanta: Chopped & Screwed (TVT). The marketing geniuses strike again. These two discs contain the same material as their original versions, but remixed by Michael "5000" Watts in the ultra-trendy screw style -- meaning they sound as if they're spinning at about three-quarters speed. Coming soon: the Chopped & Screwed-Up editions, which won't play at all. -- Roberts

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